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Monday, June 16, 2014

Well, in our hiatus, Eevee turned a year old. And if I do say so myself I think she's grown up pretty well. But I might be a little bit biased. I'm also getting ahead of myself.

Shortly before I stopped blogging, I had started a new job for an amazing company. We're allowed to bring our dogs to work with us! This is, of course, beyond fun. It also meant that I could keep up with Eevee's socialization. She's the most friendly and outgoing dog ever. She's never met a stranger (she's definitely never read the aussie breed standard).

She usually goes to work with me 2-3 days a week. She has everyone wrapped around her little paws.

Unfortunately sometimes her manners suffer as some people let her get away with way more stuff than i let her get away with.

At the end of October I came home from work and found this on her. (The shiny white thing is a quarter for reference)

My best guess (watching her play outside with my other dogs a few weeks later) is that Shiner got a bit too grabby playing with her. Took her to the vet the next day and they stapled her back together. She had to wear a thundershirt for a while which turned her into a fluffybutt monster.

Going to work 5 days a week had her pretty tuckered out. Once healed she resumed flyball training.

She started agility training in February. She really wants to try all the things. She's a lot of fun to work with, even if she barks constantly. She's more fearless than Demo on contact obstacles. I didn't think it was possible.

She turned one in mid-february.

She debuted in preflight in April. Now we're just working on her boxturn as she has her first singles races in July!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Back in October Trophy was injured. I thought it was his back. He had chiropractic and massage care and some rest. Unaware of the severity of the injury, we kept training. He had an agility trial in December and did well, earning his Novice Standard Agility Title (NA). We then had a flyball tournament the following weekend. He threw up several times on Saturday so he was pulled from Sunday racing - i don't think this was related to his injury, but I have no idea.

Novice A Dog Done Right. If we go back to agility
we'll be in Novice B now.

Then he started refusing contact equipment in agility class and I made the decision to pull him from everything. We had x-rays done at our primary vet in January, and everything looked good. It wasn't a back injury and he doesn't have hip dysplasia (yay!). Fearing a soft tissue injury, he went on "bed rest" (I couldn't truly crate rest him, but he wasn't allowed to run or play) for almost 4 months when i finally booked him an appointment with a sports medicine vet.

While she believed that he had pulled an iliopsoas muscle, he also appears to have a degenerative nerve disease in his hind legs. She said if it weren't for how active he is, I probably never would have known for several more years (he turned 6 in May). It affects his right rear leg more than the left at the moment. She didn't believe it warranted further testing at this point, and because I had crate rested him for so long, the iliopsoas strain had healed.

After being given a regime of stretches and exercises and being given the OK to *finally* return to being a dog and running around outside and playing with his siblings, we have slowly returned to flyball. One sport at a time for my Trophy and we'll go as long as he's able.

After months off, he finally returned to the flyball lanes over Memorial Day. He raced 3 heats each day and was *very* happy to be back. He was running just slightly slower than before he was injured, so that was exciting news. He is on the roster for the July tournament and will run a half spot, sharing with another dog.

While all of this was going on, I just didn't have the heart to talk about dog sports with my other dogs, but now that Trophy is doing better I'm much more in the mood to blog.

I think I'll save some updates on the other dogs for their own blog posts. We'll see you soon!